7 Golden Rules of English Grammar: Must-Know Things About Grammar for IELTS
Grammar for IELTS plays a quintessential part; without it, you can barely work your English out. Of course, we understand that English Grammar is a fairly detailed subject and takes years to master it, but we have followed the IELTS marking trends and came up with some popular rules of English grammar that will help you to score better.
Why Grammar for IELTS is Important?
One of the most important marking criteria in IELTS is the grammatical range. It is described as the ability of the students to use a range of grammatical structures that are appropriate to the context.
Here are the band descriptors for grammatical range and accuracy in IELTS writing task 2:
7 Basic Grammar Rules You Must Know
Now coming to the main point of this article; we are here with some basic grammar rules that are rather popular with the IELTS examiners. Plenty of students get confused as to what kind of grammatical structures to use. We hope this will make things clear.
English Grammar Tenses Rules
1. The Simple Present and Present Continuous Tense
We use the simple tense to talk about general, permanent or repeated actions. Here, the present simple is used to refer to a general, habitual action:
- I often read business magazines online.
Here it is implied that you read these magazines online all the time. This is something you do regularly.
We use continuous tense to focus on progressive actions that usually happen around the moment of speaking.
- I am reading an interesting book.
Here, the present continuous is used to refer to an action that is happening at the moment of speaking:
The same rule applies to all the verb tenses, past, present and future. If you want to focus on the continuity of the action, use the continuous aspect. If you are more interested in the result of the action, then use the simple aspect.
2. The Simple Past and Present Perfect Verb Tenses
When using the past tense, we see these past actions as having no connection with the present. They belong to the past, so we use the past tense to express them.
Example
I ate my breakfast with Tony and then we saw a movie.
The action above happened in the past. There is no connection with the present, so we use the simple past.
If, however, the action happened in the past but it has some kind of impact on the present, or if it continues into the present, we need to use the present perfect.
Example
I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, I’m starving.
The above is perfect because it is a past action but it has an obvious impact on the present, the speaker is now hungry.
Example
I have been waiting here since 10 a.m.
The above is perfect because the action started in the past but is continuing into the present when the speaker is still waiting.
Active and Passive Voice Rules
3. The Passive Voice
The passive voice can be used whenever you want to sound more formal and impersonal.
You form the passive voice by using the verb “to be” in the tense you want, plus the past participle (the third form of the verb; for example, for the verb “write” you would use “written”).
Examples:
Almost 50% more courses were chosen in the second semester as compared to the first one. (the passive voice is used here, with the past tense of the verb “to be” and the past participle of the verb “choose”).
More research needs to be done before choosing a certain supplier. (“do” is used in the passive voice in the infinitive, with the verb “be” used in the infinitive and the past participle of the verb “do”).
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